Juan Cortes is a fourth-year PhD student at the Johns Hopkins School of Education and a Graduate Research Assistant at the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC). His research focuses on the application of advanced quantitative methods to improve students’ academic trajectories through secondary education and access to postsecondary education, especially for minoritized and underrepresented populations. Juan’s current work involves improving early-warning indicators to better identify students in need of support and developing measures of geospatial access to postsecondary institutions across urban- and state-level contexts. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Juan conducted research and program evaluation work in K-12 public school systems, first in Cleveland Metropolitan School District where he served as a Data Fellow through Harvard’s Strategic Data Project Fellowship and most recently in Baltimore County Public Schools. He holds a master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of America.
